The parents of former FTX and Alameda Research chief Sam Bankman-Fried, along with himself and senior executives of the organisations, have become owners of at least 19 premium real estate properties worth $121 million. This follows from documents to which Reuters had access.
Most of the purchases made in 2021-2022 consist of luxury seaside homes, including seven condominiums in the prestigious Albany area of New Providence, Bahamas, worth about $72 million. They were intended as ‘leadership residences’ for the companies. The most expensive was a penthouse worth $30 million.
A group of houses worth $8.55 million and a two-hectare plot of land were designated as the ‘offices of the crypto exchange’.
Another property was purchased for the leisure of Bankman-Fried’s parents—the Stanford University law professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried. Even before the events became known, the couple attempted to recover the FTX property secured by a mortgage.
According to a ruling by the Bahamas Supreme Court, FTX must pay the expenses incurred by the local Securities Commission for holding the exchange’s digital assets. CoinDesk reported.
In the court filings the total value of assets of FTX, Alameda and affiliated entities stands at $1.2 billion. This is more than 2.6 times below the claims of the 50 largest creditors ($3.1 billion). In total the firm owes to more than a million individuals and entities.
Of the $1.2 billion, about $751 million is held in debtor entities, and the remainder ($488 million) is in other companies.
Approximately $514 million is free liquidity, $260 million is held in custody, $465 million is earmarked for debt repayments and cannot be used for general business purposes.
On 11 November, FTX, Alameda and about 130 affiliated firms filed for bankruptcy.
The liquidity crisis at the exchange unfolded after on 6 November Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced the liquidation of the company’s stake in the FTX utility token (FTT). The decision was reportedly taken after CoinDesk’s investigation, which found a large share of the digital asset on Alameda’s balance sheet.
Coin Metrics analysts speculated that the possible cause could be ‘a large financial aid’ that it provided to the trading company in the second quarter of 2022.
According to Bankman-Fried, assets of FTX and Alameda are valued at $1 billion, and liabilities total $8 billion.
Earlier Bloomberg analysts named a similar assessment and described as ‘unlikely’ the possibility of returning funds to customers and investors.
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